I recently acquired this rifle brand new and over the last few weeks have a bit of shooting at the range. Overall I am quite happy with the rifle, it is a keeper.

It is a Browning BLR Lightweight Stainless Laminate and is chambered in 308Win. It has the pistol grip stock which I prefer, probably because all of my other rifles are bolt actions so this style of stock is more familiar. It is fitted with a decent recoil pad and the barrel is free floating forward of the front screw. The magazine is blue rather than stainless which was a surprise (did they ever make stainless magazines?). It holds 4 rounds.

Iíve fitted a Leupold VX-III 2.5-8x36 with duplex reticle in Talley alloy rings. I had to remove the rear sight to fit the scope. The front sight is visible when the scope is on low power but not really an issue, Iíll probably remove it (front sight) at some stage.

I did a fairly minimal ďrun inĒ; it is quite easy to get clean. Iíve been using Hoppes #9 to get rid of the powder fouling then Wipeout to remove copper.

I tried some Remington factory loads which returned 5-shot groups around 2 - 2.5Ē at 100m. I then started on my handloads with the Nosler 125gn BT (for feral goats). 47grains of AR2206H is returning 5-shot groups averaging 1.2MOA at 100m. More powder increased the size of the groups significantly so Iím happy with the 47gn load. Next step is to develop a 150gn load.

Recently I shot it in an informal lever action match and did OK. Was able to put some reasonable groups down from field positions but need to practice my rapid fire. The rifle is still pretty tight Ė the lever is a bit Ďstickyí to cycle but I expect this to loosen up with more shooting. The trigger is pretty ordinary Ė heavy, creepy and very long. A trip to the gunsmith will hopefully improve it a bit.

To sum up: the positives are the rifle fits me very well, shoots accurately, is light & is fun. The barrel doesnít foul excessively and Iím happy with my choice of scope to match the rifle. The negatives are the trigger (which I expected to be poor), the blue magazine and the fact that Winchester Australia still hasnít supplied the spare magazine several months after ordering it.

I have three BLRs. All of them are the older steel framed models. I have two .308 Wins, one is a backup in case anything happens to the first one, and I recently purchased a beautiful 22-250 that I believe will make a great coyote, and general purpose varmit gun for most of the varmit shooting I get to do.

Currently, I am trying to decide on how much scope to put on it. I know it will probably be a Leupold, as that is what I usually get. But I am trying to decide on how much magnification I want vs. handyness and compactness.

I have the older model BLR in 358 Win.It's shooting it's favourite 220 gr load right at 1" and 220 fps.A couple of other loads open up a bit to 1 1/4".Have shot 3 elk and grizzly with it.Light, handy and fun to shoot. Great saddle gun.Same issues with the trigger.Current scope in QR rings is Leupold's fixed 2.5 X, but have also used their Vari-X III 1.5-5 on this gun.Works well in low light, and still fits in the saddle scabbard.Having the sights still on, ensures back up should there be a problem with the scope.

My hunting partner has a new one in 358 Win.He's getting 3/8" groups in his!

I have a BLR Lightning in 7mag that I just love to shoot. Never a problem. Had the trigger smoothed and lightened by my gunsmith when I first got it. I get excellent groups with the Fed Premiums, so that's what I use for hunting. It sports a Bushnell 3200 Elite.

I also have the stainless, pistol grip in .308. I have weaver mounts and a Burris 4 power straight tube. I kept the rear sight on. I can remove the rings and pick up the sight picture over the top of the mounts. As a Virginia deer rifle it borders on perfection.It is an easy 1" shooter with just 20 rounds through it. It will just get better.